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Friday, November 2, 2012

#110 - Alejandro Pena

What a card: Alejandro Pena was at the height of his career when this card was produced. He led the National League in earned-run average and shutouts in 1984. But he suffered such a severe rotator cuff injury that he missed almost the entire 1985 season, and it was initially feared that he would never pitch again.

My observation on the front: Pena had those crazy fat eyebrows that made it look like he painted them on before every game.

More opinion from me: I was pretty out of the loop as far as following baseball in 1984, so I don't think fully appreciated the season Pena was having. I feel cheated.

Something you might know: Pena was on the mound for the Braves when Gene Larkin's single drove in Dan Gladden with the game's only run in the 10th inning of Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

Something you might not know: Only five pitchers know the feeling of giving up the Series-winning hit in Game 7 of the World Series. Pena is one of them. The other four are the New York Giants' Jack Bentley (1924), the New York Yankees' Ralph Terry (1960), the Cleveland Indians' Charles Nagy (1997) and the Yankees' Mariano Rivera (2001).

My observation on the back: Ichiro Suzuki now holds the record for singles in a season with 225 in 2004.

1 comment:

Back when he was blowing games for the Mets (as most relievers did in the early '90s) the venerable NY radio host Steve Somers hung the moniker Alejandro "Stomach" Pena om him. I still always and only refer to him in this manner.

Needless to say, your Dodgers got the best of his career (as did the Braves).

-- The Hardball Times-- HighHeatStats.com-- Honolulu Star-Bulletin-- "If These Walls Could Talk, Los Angeles Dodgers" - Houston Mitchell--IMDb.com-- "Is This a Great Game or What?" - Tim Kurkijan-- the Ivy League